LIKE A DUCK – YOUTUBE MONTAGE

Like a duck is an exploration in spatiality and staging of narrative memory in storytelling. There are four main positions I cycle through in the piece, which is given as direct address. The first is a refrain of the phrase ‘He said to me, “I don’t want to sit next to you.” And I was dumbfounded. “Why?” I said. And the poor boy responded, “Because you’re a terrorist.”‘ In the second I sing ‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree’ by the Andrews Sister. In the third I offer names and short quips about the people I dedicate the performance to. The final position is an unscripted voice. I attempt to create a memory model performance that allows for the ghosting of many experiences of 9/11 and the days, weeks, months, and years that have followed drawing on my personal experiences of discrimination as an Arab American.

This piece was originally created as a memoir project. The memoir, which was entitled, ‘Insha’allah’, was a written collection of stories that then became the first script of this performance. Eventually parts of that script fell away to reveal this one, and the song “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree’ replaced the stories not included.

Like a duck was created in the course of a King’s College, London Performance Lab module.